The mid-40s are that time in a gay man's life when his major paradigm shifts from sexy to Sansabelts. But when Barry Grooms's partner of twenty years is killed on Barry's forty-fifth birthday, his world doesn't so much evolve as it does explode.<br><br>After navigating through the surreal conveyor belt of friends and family, he can't eat another casserole or swallow much more advice on what constitutes grief. Still numb, he leaves his homestore and design business in the care of others as he escapes to Key West, then New York. There he gets a thankless new job working for a crazy lady in a poncho, then has too many drinks with a narcissistic Broadway actor. Next it's a nude exercise class that redefines flop sweat, and from there he's on to a relationship with a man twenty years his junior.<br><br>Yet no matter how great the retreat from the man he used to be, life's gravity spins Barry back to the small town where he grew up for one more ironic twist that teaches him how to say goodbye with grace.

The Cool Part of His Pillow

Then I tackle my biggest worry: the massive green coconuts dangling from our front tree. Just one could split open a person’s head. This was always Andy’s assignment. I put on his Tommy Bahama shirt and extract what I can. My right shoulder immediately bothers me. That I will need Icy Hot after something so basic as shaping a tree bothers me more. IfI pick up the right tube. I’ve misplaced all three pairs of my reading glasses and might end up rubbing toothpaste on my shoulder.


“I saw the lights on the other night, but I thought it was holiday renters!”


Without looking, I know it’s Testosterina (full name: Testosterina Estrogina Jorgenson), a local drag queen at the Duval Street show club Barrage. Although caulked and powdered from sternum to hairline, he’s in boy clothing. We were both fond of Teste, the male-ish name we coined and he adopted, since he detested his given name of Leonard and those who gave it to him. In turn, he called us Papa Bear and Andy Panda.


Chapter 42